Battle Bots is coming back

I’d be interested…but can’t help for a bit (end of semester duties of a grad student!)

Just saw Episode 1 of the new season of BattleBots on ABC. I am interested in joining a team. Is there anyone still working on this?

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If we can get a group together I would be very interested in starting a new battlebot team. I know from experience the level of 'bots from the show are very expensive and time consuming, if you build it once, you better have many many spares. When they interview teams that say machined titanium, I realize they have some serious cash behind their team.

I think @Scot had a good suggestion to go ahead and schedule a meeting. I set up a doodle with some dates and times. http://doodle.com/8wytystshyf6wt8f

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Who can beat Tombstone? Robot lawnmower of death! :scream:

BattleBots now allow Projectiles AND they can be either tether or untethered. One could create a fired(combustion driven) tether projectile to foul it up early on, then reel the bot towards your own to deliver punishment. If I get to go to the meeting, I will explain one of the concepts that can defeat the vast majority of current bots.

Another concept would be to give it a wall(bot) that is angle for tombstone to work against. Similar to how Blendo lost against Punjar. I dislike push-only-bots, but if the blade on the pushbot is strong enough, the kinetic energy can be used against the likes of tombstone.

…X…

Well, you will have to be careful with your tethered projectile, Entanglement as been added back to the rules after the net present. Driving is the major weakness of most of these bots. I think ICE is better than tombstone, not because of power, but because their weapons makes all sides of the robot dangerous instead of just the front. They also proved to do much more damage to a well designed robot rather than a joke of a bot that tomb stone went against.

:smile:

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That present was hilarious! I could not stop laughing for 5 minutes. AND entanglement is back on the rules…However if a grappling hook type device(which is through combustion launched and) designed mainly for “reeling-in” the other bot, was used it would be legal.

You have a few choices when dealing with high energy kinetic weapons like ICE and Tomb-stone: You can deflect the blows to cause damage, you can absorb the blow and minimize damage to use your own weapons against…Or Outmaneuver them… Non of these are ideal, so we must come up with a better way.

…X…

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IIRC flame throwers were illegal in the original battlebots rules. They must have loosened the regulations. They also mentioned they are 250lbs which would mean they’re all in the heavyweight class, I guess because it’s a pilot season, they didn’t want to add more complexity by adding multiple weight classes.

Correct. They did an AMA on Reddit, and that is exactly it. They loosen as much as it was feasible and will slowly compartmentalize to get the right fit for weps and weights classes. Part of the problem before was that the show was convoluted by third party’s interests which conflicted with what BattleBots IS suppose to be about. Bot battles. This time is as raw as it can be, and after this season, I have a feeling its going to be AwesomeR. The likes of DMS(etc.) will come out of the woodwork and compete. All we have seen is the old BattleBots version 2015. Once the new designs appear it will be spectacular.

…X…

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I finally watched the first two episodes. Really awesome! But I find what they did to Total Control was bullsh*t. They won that first battle fair and square. But hey, lets judge them based on implied rules rather than what the rules ACTUALLY are. 9_9

Doodle only has two coming to the meeting… Is it going to happen after all, if there is such low interest?

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I don’t think the issue is lack of interest, I think it’s lack of willingness to commit.
The end goals are pretty sketchy at this point, so I imagine people are hanging back to see what unfolds before they jump in…
Me? I’m already overcommited on projects I’m behind on finishing. So even though I’d love to commit some time to this, I think I would just disappoint a few more people if I tried. Even though I think I have figured out the way to defeat the spinnerbots like Tombstone… Of course, I can’t find the rules anywhere, so I don’t know if my ideas are within them or not.

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Let’s go ahead and meet this Friday at 6PM in the common area. At the least we can chat battlebots and run through some ideas. It’ll be fun. I’ve had large events come about with just two people in the first meeting. I haven’t signed up as a member yet as this would be the first project where I could use the space. Anyone willing to let me in the door as a guest?

214-566-3522
[email protected]

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I might be there before my 3d printer class. If you’re willing to organize a combat robot team that would be great. There are several robot combat competitions in the US still besides battlebots it would be fun to have a bot to compete with.

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@jast I completely understand. You are right. It is the respectful thing to do, not over commit or committing with out knowing if one can carry through.

HOWEVER!

We(everyone interested) SHOULD meet, and WE SHOULD loosely base some ideas and other things. For a battle ready bot to come to fruition, a few things have to happen, starting with…

A written PLAN to handle the following:

1.Resources - Parts, capital, money, expertise,

2. Fabrication. - Actual construction and maintenance(cross training) of the components.

3. Logistics - Bots and team. While at DMS and abroad in battles. One should NEVER underestimate logistics(thus why it gets its own category)

4. Operations - The team of individuals selected to control the battle bot. How many times have YOU seen it?!? Awesome, well-built bots with tons of potential Doomed from the start because of poor operators. This is its own category.

We should not think of this endeavor as a set-in stone thing. Rather we should operate on a similar model to that of DMS’ committees . Allowing the BattleBot team to freely shift members in and out at will. We should create a pool of individuals who we can call upon to be involved if we run into an issue out of our domain. Under such a model, ownership would be a tricky thing. This and other things will be discussed in Fridays meeting.

Listen EVERYONE: even if you cannot/should not/will not commit, attend the meeting and give in your VALUABLE input! you wont regret it.

…X…

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I am planning to be there. I will let you in more than likely.

…X…

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It looks like @awesomer can’t make it until later tonight. I don’t have a way in right now. If anyone in interested you can call me at 214-566-3522 and we can chat and find a time to get together.

I posted a couple months ago about having a antweights competition (1lb) for combat robots. We could build an arena and the robots are about $200-300 worth of rc parts to build. I think that’s more manageable than a building a heavyweight battlebot.

That is a definite possibility. When I priced out my design I was looking at $20,000 so it is probably better to start smaller. I heard you can make 30lb ones for about $250. Maybe we should start a different thread on just combat RC robots.

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